The Great Ideas (Britannica)

I. Angels

1a. Inferior deities or demi-gods in polytheistic religion

  1. Homer: Illiad

  2. Aeschelys: Prometheus Bound

  3. Sophocles: Trachiniae

  4. Euripides: Rhesus

  5. Aristophanes: Clouds

  6. Herodotus: History

  7. Plato: Protagoras

  8. Aristotle: Metaphysics

  9. Aristotle: Rhetoric

  10. Lucretius: Nature of Things

  11. Epictetus: Discourses

  12. Aurelius: Meditations

  13. Virgil: Aeneid

  14. Plutarch: Numa Pompilius

  15. Tacitus: Annals

  16. Plotinus: Second Ennead

  17. Augustine: City of God

  18. Aquinas: Summa Theologica

  19. Dante: Divine Comedy

  20. Chaucer: Knight’s Tale

  21. Hobbes: Leviathan

  22. Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel

  23. Montaigne: Essays

  24. Shakespeare: As You Like It

  25. Shakespeare: Tempest

  26. Bacon: Advancement of Learning

  27. Milton: Christ’s Nativity

  28. Locke: Human Understanding

  29. Fielding: Tom Jones

  30. Gibbon: Decline and Fall

  31. Hegel: Philosophy of History

  32. Goethe: Faust, pt.2

2. Philosophical consideration of pure intelligences, spiritual substances, supra-human person

  1. Plotinus: Second Ennead

  2. Augustine Confessions

  3. Aquinas: Summa Theologica

  4. Dante: Divine Comedy, Paradise

  5. Hobbes: Leviathan

  6. Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel

  7. Bacon: Advancement of Learning

  8. Descartes: Objections and Replies

  9. Milton: Paradise Lost

  10. Locke: Human Understanding

  11. Berkeley: Human Knowledge

  12. Gibbon: Decline and Fall

  13. Kant: Pure Reason

  14. Hegel: Philosophy of History

2a. The celestial motors or secondary prime movers: The intelligences attached to the celestial bodies

  1. Plato: TImaeus

  2. Aristotle: Heavens

  3. Lucretius: Nature of Things

  4. Virgil: Aeneid

  5. Kepler: Epitome

  6. Plotinus: Second Ennead

  7. Aquinas: Summa Theologica

  8. Dante: Divine Comedy

  9. Gilbert: Loadstone

2b. Our knowledge of immaterial beings

  1. Plotinus: Third Ennead

  2. Augustine: Confessions

  3. Aquinas: Summa Theologica

  4. Bacon: Advancement of Learning

  5. Descartes: OBjections and Replies

  6. Locke: Human Understanding

  7. Berkley: Human Knowledge

3. The conception of angels in Judeo-Christian doctrine

  1. Augustine: City of God

  2. Aquinas: Summa Theologica

  3. Dante: Divine Comedy

  4. Hobbes: Leviathan

  5. Milton: Paradise Lost

3a. The first creatures of God: their place in the order of creation

  1. Old Testament: 1 Kings: 8:37, 3 Kings 8:37 / 2 Chronicles 2:6, 6:18, Psalm 8:4-5, 115:116, Isaiah 6:1-3, Ezekiel 1, Daniel 7:10

  2. New Testament: Matthew 18:10, John 1:51, Acts 23:8, Hebrews 1-2, 1 Peter 3:22, Revelation 5:11-14

  3. Augustine: Confessions

  4. Aquinas: Summa Theologica, part 1

  5. Dante: Divine Comedy

  6. Hobbes: Leviathan

  7. Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel

  8. Bacon: Advancement of Learning

  9. Milton: Paradise Lost

  10. Pascal: Pensées

  11. Locke: Human Understanding

3a. The first creatures of God: their place in the order of creation’

  1. Old Testmanet: Psalms, 103:20-22, 104:4, Isaiah 6:1-3, Ezekiel 1:10

  2. New Testament: Hebrews, 1-2, 2 Peter, 2:10-11, Revelaiton, 18:1

  3. Augustine: Confessions

  4. Dante: Divine Comedy, Paradise, 29

  5. Hobbes: Leviathan, part 3

  6. Descartes: Objections and Replies

  7. Milton: Paradise Lost

  8. Pascal: Provincial Letters

  9. Locke: Human Understanding

3c. The aeviternity and incorruptibility of angels

  1. Augustine: COnfessions

  2. Aquinas: Summa Theologica, Part 1, Q 10, Q50, Q61, Q97, Q 104

  3. Dante: Divine Comedy, Paradise, 7

  4. Hobbes: Leviathan

  5. Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel

  6. Milton: Paradise Lost

3d. The angelic intellect and angelic knowledge

Old Testament: Genesis, 16:7-12, 18:9-15, 22:15-18, Judges, 6:11-16, 13:2-14, 2 Samuel 14:20

II. Animals

III. Aristocracy